Quick disconnect cam locking couplings enable a hose to be connected and disconnected from a tank in a minimum amount of time. The couplings include a plug received within a socket. In order to connect the hose ends, the socket is provided with a lever having a cam at the pivoted end thereof, so that the cam engages a peripheral groove in the plug, thereby locking the plug to the socket when the lever is in one position and releases the cam from the groove when the lever is rotated outwardly away from the socket.
Often the lever is inadvertently rotated from the locked to the unlocked position, thereby releasing the plug from the socket and freeing the hose ends and spraying the area with liquid. This is a catastrophe where toxic chemicals are involved, such as the use of insecticides and defoliants used in agriculture work, for example. Moreover,the chemicals are often very expensive and it is possible to lose hundreds of dollars of chemicals on the ground as well as contaminating the immediate area and worse yet, possibly enabling the toxic chemical to enter into the life chain of our planet.
It would therefore be desirable to have made available a foolproof means by which the levers that actuate the cam locking apparatus of a quick disconnect safety coupling can be releasably positioned in the locked position so that vibration and movement of the hose will not inadvertently unlock the cams and release the coupling members one from the other.
Moreover, when the levers are moved to the open position, it would be desirable to have the levers that actuate the cam to remain in the open position, thereby enabling the male plug member of the coupling to easily be received within the socket. Such an expedient facilitates connecting the plug to the socket, especially when the plug and socket are arranged along a vertical axis whereupon the levers tend to gravitate in a downward direction.
Apparatus which overcomes the above defects of the prior art and achieves the above stated desirable attributes is the subject of the present invention.